Rhapsody in the Barrio
by Karrah Aretz
Summary: Angelo reflects on his life


# Rhasody in the Barrio

**By Maureen **

Disclaimer, you know the drill. Story is mine, song isn't, unknown/new characters are mine, and characters you recognize aren't. So there, no money is being made (WAH!!! Sob, sob) and **sniff* I wish money was being made, I have insurance to pay…. And an addiction to feed, it's called comics and sci-fi. I need money, please… 

All flames will be given to my dog to play with and chew on and will not be read. 

Bohemian Rhapsody is owned by Queen and even if it isn't I'm using it w/o permission and I don't own it. 

* * *

_Is this the real life? _ _Is this just fantasy?_ _Caught in a land slide _ _Escape from reality _ _Open your eyes, look up to the sky and sing! _

I wish I could see the sky. You never know how much something you take for granted everyday until you don't have it anymore. In the barrio it never mattered, buildings blocked it from view anyway. But, in Massachusetts, you can see the sky for miles through the trees, makes you realize how insignificant you really are. 

_I'm just a poor boy_ _I need no sympathy _

Not that the barrio didn't make you learn that lesson fast. Everything there is fast; you die fast, grow up fast, and learn life fast. Too fast. Watching Bethany grow up, I realize that now. Life is short, but to a child it can hold infinite wonders. To a child it lasts forever. 

_Because I'm easy come, easy go _ _Little high, little low _

I never could stay in one place long enough for it to matter, except for Xavier's. Maybe that's why I was always a hard target to hit in a gunfight, always moving. Once I graduated (and did remarkably better than if I had been in LA) I used Xavier's scholarships to go to college, now I'm a computer programer. Surprisingly enough I'm still in Snow Valley. No X-MEN, saving the world crap for me. Of course, that might be how I ended up here. 

_Anywhere the wind goes, doesn't really matter to me_ _To me………_

A jail cell would not be that bad right now, at least then I could escape. Approximately a day ago I was gassed and picked up by some goons on my way to ask my girlfriend Vanessa Velasquez to marry me. Now I'm here in god knows where, some high-tech jail cell with an inhibitor collar around my neck. She'll kill me. I wonder if anybody else is here? The goons came in once with food, so far I'm not dead, yet. 

Sitting in here alone makes me think of better-left-dead memories. Like of Mama, and the Barrio. Memories better left burried. 

_Mama, just killed a man _ _Put a gun against his head _ _Pulled the trigger, now he's dead _

Or not. The dead kid, the one killed, is me. I killed myself. Oh, not literally, only figuratively. Tores wouldn't let my out of the gang, and if I just left they'd hurt my mama. I had only one option; I faked my own death. 

_Mama, life has just begun _ _And now I've gone and thrown it all away_

I hurt mi madre (1). It don't matter what I do to myself, or what life throws at me, but no one hurts mi madre. No one. 

_Mama, oooooh _ _Didn't mean to make you cry _ _If I'm not back again this time tomorrow _ _Carry on, carry on as if nothing ever mattered _

But it's been eight years. I can't just go waltzing back home; it isn't fair to me, or to her. She's laid her grief aside and went on, I should too. Not that I don't check up on her. Every year at the time of my "death" I go to LA and make sure she's okay. She knows me as an old man who sits on park benches, but she's never suspected so far. Not even the money I sent to her once made her think of me. That's good, then Tores won't hurt mi familia o mi amigos. (2) 

_Too late, my time has come_ _Sent shivers down my spine _ _Body's aching all the time_

Thinking about this even now makes me want to hide. Or to find the nearest holy man of any religion and repent for my sins. 

_Good bye, everybody, I've got to go _ _Gotta leave you all behind and face the truth _

The truth, what the hell is the truth? I faked my death, does that make it less real? There is a tombstone with my name on it! What truth is there? I am alive and everybody I ever loved in el barrio thinks I'm dead. That is no truth. 

_Mama, ooooh, I don't want to die, _ _But sometimes wish I'd never been born at all_

I know mama would be mad if she knew that. But I seriously doubt the world would be worse off without me. Different, yes, but worse? Creo que no (3). Mama would not have the pain of thinking that her son was dead, Torres would never have known me… Xavier's, alright, there are parts of my life I like. Namely the ones from after I left the barrio. 

_I'm but a little silhouette of a man _ _Scatta mousch, scatta mousch _ _Will you do the fandango? _

_Thunder bolts of lightning, _ _Very, very frightening _

_Eek! Galaleio, Galaleio, figergo _ _MAN-IFI-Cooo_ _I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me _ _HE'S JUST A POOR BOY FROM A POOR FAMILY _ _SPARE HIM HIS LIFE FROM THIS MONSTROSITY _

Monstrosity, that's what Mama said. She said that all mutants were an abomination and that if I had been one she would have disowned me. Dead and disowned, how's that for a epithet? 

_Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?_ _Ischmael loch, NO, WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO _ _Let him go!_

_Ischmael loch, WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO_ _Let him go! _

_Ischmael loch, WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO_ _Let him go! _

_WILL NOT LET YOU GO _ _Let him go! _

_NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!!! _ _Oh mamamia _ _Mamamia let me go! _

Letting me go from this prison would be too easy wouldn't it? Can't cut the Puertoriqueno mutie some slack. Ever. It would be too fucking easy. 

_Beelzebub_ _The devil has his sites on me, _ _For me, _ _FOR ME _

When I found out I was a mutant that's what I thought. I thought I was part devil. Of course then I was kidnapped by the Phalanx and realized that no, I wasn't the devil, there were other people with that job. Then I met Jono, and realized my diablo idea wasn't as original as I had first though. Story of my life. 

Might as well get this over with…. Been awhile Dio, lo siento. Hail Mary full of grace… 

_So you think you can stop me and spit in my eyes_ _So you think you can love me ad leave me to die! _ _Oh, baby, can't do this to me baby _ _Just gotta get out, just gotta get right out of here!!_

"Angelo Manuel Espinosa?" the guards finally came to do whatever they were planning on doing. 

"Si," Angelo replied, climbing to his feet, and pulling his rosary out of his pocket, ready for whatever was to happen. He wanted to fight, but lack of information about his captors and where he was effectivly stopped that idea. That and the inhibitor collar, of course. "Let's get on with it." 

Down a long hall, on an elevator, were they going up or down? down another hallway and into a white room with a one way mirror and a video camera. Angelo did his "incredible melting boy trick" as Jubilee used to call it, when he relaxed his skin totally and made it look like he was a pile of goop. 

"Angelo Manuel Espinosa, you stand accused, how do you plead?" a faceless and sexless voice sounded over a loud speaker. 

Angelo's head appeared "Amigos, sus estan muy malo (4) to think that I am going to answer that! I am Angelo Manuel Espinosa from Los Angeles, California! That is it!" 

"Angelo Espinosa, you are free to go," the voice said a few minutes later. 

_Ooooooohhh, oooooh yeah, oooooh yeah _ _Nothing really matters, anyone can see _ _Nothing really matters, nothing really matters _ _Too me…._

Except life. My life. And that's enough. 

* * *

(1) Mi madre = my mother in spanish 

(2) Mi amigos o mi familia = my friends or my family 

(3) Creo que no = I don't think so 

(4) Amigos, sus estan muy malo = friends, you are extremely insane… 


End file.
